Commercial and residential construction projects employ the use of anchor bolts for holding structural elements or other members to concrete. For example, anchor bolts may be used to securely attach foundation walls, light posts, heating ventilating and air conditioning units, and communications equipment to concrete slabs. Anchor bolts can be mounted into dried or cured concrete. In this type of instillation, the dried concrete slab must be drilled at the selected location. Subsequently, a bolt having a split sleeve is used to effect attachment therein. Although such a mounting technique allows for anchor bolts to be properly secured within concrete, costs are usually high due to the necessary drilling and complex bolt attachment.
A second manner of mounting anchor bolts into concrete involves positioning the anchor bolt within a form and subsequently pouring wet concrete into the form. Such an arrangement negates the need to drill into the concrete as the wet concrete cures around the previously positioned anchor bolts. However, certain challenges exist in properly positioning and holding anchor bolts in place while pouring wet concrete. For example, the anchor bolts must be accurately located before the concrete is poured as repositioning subsequent to curing of the concrete, due to a mistake, is both labor intensive and costly. Further, forces acting upon the positioned anchor bolts due to the flow of wet concrete may cause them to turn or otherwise shift out of place.
Templates are known for use in positioning and holding anchor bolts in place while wet concrete is poured into a form and subsequently cures around the anchor bolts to permanently fix them in position. One such template is a square plate that has a series of apertures that extend from its center. A user may place a nut onto a threaded portion of an anchor bolt and may subsequently place the bolt through a particular aperture of the template. The user may then place a second nut onto the threaded portion of the anchor bolt and tighten the second nut onto the plate so that the anchor bolt is held onto the template. Corresponding apertures may be employed in a similar fashion so that four anchor bolts can be positioned on the template at a selected center-to-center distance. The template and attached anchor bolts are placed on top of a concrete form and wet concrete is poured therein. After the concrete has cured to thus encase the anchor bolts, the second nuts can be loosened and removed to allow the template to be subsequently lifted and removed.
The apertures extend an equal, predetermined distance from the center of the template so that the anchor bolts can be positioned in square shaped configurations of different sizes. Concentric knock-out portions that are stamped, scored or otherwise weakened surround the apertures. It may be the case that an anchor bolt with a diameter larger than the aperture is desired to be embedded in concrete. In these instances, the knock-out portion can be removed so that the size of the aperture is extended in order to accommodate the larger diameter anchor bolt. Although instruments are known to aid in the positioning of anchor bolts within concrete, there remains room for variation and improvement within the art.
Repeat use of reference characters in the present specification and drawings is intended to represent the same or analogous features or elements of the invention.